


Unknowable

by Winoniel



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:31:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winoniel/pseuds/Winoniel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The question I’m asked most often as a defense attorney is whether I can tell if my clients are innocent or guilty.  And my answer is always the same:  I don’t care.  And its not because I’m heartless, although that’s up for debate, but because my clients, like all of us here in this room, lie.  And that makes them unknowable." </p>
<p>"Do you know who anyone really is?"</p>
<p>Annalise is found, courted, and known by Sam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unknowable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badgirlsdoitwell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgirlsdoitwell/gifts).



> To badgirlsdoitwell: I hope this pleases you--it was so much fun trying to get into Annalise's head. I hope we learn more when the season restarts!

Unknowable

“The question I’m asked most often as a defense attorney is whether I can tell if my clients are innocent or guilty. And my answer is always the same: I don’t care. And its not because I’m heartless, although that’s up for debate, but because my clients, like all of us here in this room, lie. And that makes them unknowable.” 

Do you know who anyone really is?

~*~*~*~*~   
Long before she actually saw him, Annalise’s pulse began to pound, her palms grew clammy, and her mouth grew dry. She knew he had entered the room, knew he was back by the buffet table, knew he was laughing at some grad student’s stupid quips, by the way the little hairs shivered on the back of her neck. 

She didn’t have to see him, because the atmosphere grew charged when he appeared. The lights were brighter, the music slid gently in the ear, the laughter was light and joyous. Could she be in love? Could she have fallen in love with Dr. Keating? She didn’t want to turn around, so she inclined her body slightly to the corner of the room, then quickly glanced over her shoulder. She froze.

My God, how gorgeous he was! He wasn’t blessed with classical good looks; no, Sam Keating was too raw-boned, too bookish to appeal to the general public. No, only struggling law clerks who had absent fathers, been raised around the machismo of inner-city Philadelphia, taken his psychology courses in college and were blown away by his brilliant mind and self-deprecating smile, and were yearning for a degree of culture and refinement in her life would find Sam Keating irresistible. 

“Hello! You’re Annalise Johnson, aren’t you?” That small, knowing smile was turned in her direction.

“You remember me? From three years ago?” Annalise was disbelieving.

“Sorry—” that smile again. “Occupational hazard. I remember the name and face of every student I’ve ever had. I’m almost afraid that other valuable information is not being saved due to my stockpile of decades of students.”

Annalise laughed.   
~*~*~*~*~   
Annalise found the way Sam looked directly in her eyes, the way he seemed to focus on her to the exclusion of anything else, the way he seemed to hang on every word she said, seductive and compelling. He seemed to understand everything that she’d gone through to get to where she was. He was a native Philadelphian, like her. He was from the North Philly, like her. He’d started at the Community College of Philadelphia before transferring to UPenn, like her. Most importantly, he was ambitious, like her.

“Where do you see yourself twenty years from now?” Sam and Annalise stood on a bridge overlooking the trail which ran beside the Schuylkill River. It was a brilliant spring day. They’d been together about 5 weeks, and Annalise found herself just as drawn to the man as she had when she had seen him in class.

“I see myself as Assistant District Attorney here in the city,” Annalise answered without hesitation. “I want to put the most heinous criminals behind bars, clean this city up, restore its reputation.”

“That’s impressive,” Sam said, his penetrating focus doing wonderful things to her insides. “You are clever, Annalise. You think outside the box. You are wonderfully devious at your interpretation of the law and how the law can be used in rather unorthodox ways. Don’t you think that you would be rather restricted by the rules and regulations of the DA’s office?”

Annalise was taken aback. Sam was incredibly intuitive about human psyche. In fact, she thought cynically, it was a talent that he wasn’t above using for his own ends. How else could he convince someone as skeptical and wary as herself to have an affair with a married man? But more important, it seemed that he saw her as no one else could, and saw that her upbringing in inner-city Philadelphia had made her rather distrustful of law. It was the irony of her life that it was her very pessimism about humanity that made her so keen to become a lawyer.

“I hadn’t really thought about it that way. You know where I grew up?”

He nodded, his hand gently caressing hers, his eyes intent upon hers. 

“Well, I grew up seeing people displaced when the newer condo complexes were being built, ‘regenerating’ the neighborhood. I saw old men and women whose grandparents and parents had lived in apartments for over a century, struggling to find affordable housing when their tenements were condemned. I saw young men, scholarship students at prestigious academies throughout the city, thrown down in the streets by the police simply because they were black in an area in which blacks were few and far between.

“I can’t say that I can change all of that, but by tackling the masterminds, bringing down the crime bosses that encourage a criminal element through inner-city areas, I can contribute to the development of an attitude of cooperation between the leaders of the black community and the authorities. I know it sounds naïve,” Annalise said, feeling a little foolish, “but—”

“Not at all!” Sam interjected, “It’s commendable. Most of your classmates are looking to finding cushy corporate law position as soon as the ink is dry on their licenses. However—” Sam stopped himself, regarding her soberly.

“However?” she asked archly.

“However, you might consider the practice of criminal law.”

Now, she was shocked. This was something that she’d never considered.

“Criminal law?” Unexamined vistas opened before her eyes.

“Yes. It may not be as altruistic as your other objectives, but I have to say, knowing you as I do,” he said with narrowed his eyes, obviously choosing his words carefully. “You have a healthy disrespect for following the rules. You wouldn’t be happy toeing the line in the Public Defender’s Office. 

“I know—” he said, holding up his hand, recognizing her rising objection. “You were thinking of a more high-profile start to your career, but quite frankly, there is a career arc that most lawyers follow when they have their eye on working in the DA’s office. While you might be able to buck it, as you have the ability, you don’t presently have the connections. You’ll start as a lowly clerk in the most underfunded, heavily overworked office downtown. That’s a given.

“But if you decide to go into criminal law, there are alternatives. It’s something to think about.”

Something to think about, Annalise thought. Something to think about. She must admit, Sam knew her well, knew her quirks and skills, and needs—she squirmed, thinking that he knew _all_ of her needs. 

She smiled, thinking about their previous night together. There was heat, and passion, sweat, bites, moans, and such feeling—skin against skin, lips, tongues sliding. Her smile widened before she pulled herself back to the present. She would definitely give it some thought. Sam was brilliant and his advice was nothing to be trifled with. 

She only wished she knew him half as well as he knew her. She smiled. It would happen. Her knowledge of Sam would grow in time. 

Her unknowable lover would eventually become known to her.


End file.
